Francesco Albotto was known to his contemporaries as 'il secondo Marieschi'. A pupil of Michele Marieschi, he took over his master's studio shortly after his death in 1743, and within a year had married his widow. Albotto frequently reworked Marieschi's compositions, as with the present painting and another version previously given to Marieschi in the Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples (Inv. no. 33988), both of which are based on Marieschi's painting of the Ca'Foscari from the Grand Canal, in a private collection, Italy (see R. Toledano, Michele Marieschi, 1988, pp. 106-7, nos. V. 29.1-29.2).

We are grateful to Dr. Dario Succi for confirming the attribution to Albotto on the basis of a transparancy and a black and white photograph